‘We’ve never seen anything like this’
More than 120 firefighters fought to quell six-alarm fire at Toronto sports club
Valentine’s Day brought heartache for members of the historic Badminton and Racquet Club of Toronto.
The club went up in flames Tuesday morning, sparking what fire Chief Matthew Pegg called one of the biggest fire responses of his career.
More than 120 firefighters battled the massive blaze that swept through the storied club. At one point, firefighters with 12 hoses were pumping water onto the fire from five pumper trucks and vantage points on nearby rooftops and balconies.
Portions of Yonge St. and St. Clair Ave. were closed Tuesday afternoon as thick smoke billowed from the club’s roof, police said.
Displaced area residents were sent to a reception centre run by the Red Cross in an office building at 55 St. Clair W. at the request of the city’s emergency management office.
“They may be out of their homes for a while, in fact they likely will be,” Mayor John Tory said. “We want to make sure they have a place to go even just to get a meal and maybe to have to stay overnight.”
The total number of people who evacuated the area buildings was not known. Tory said only a handful of the displaced had not found a place to stay on their own. A return to their homes was not likely Wednesday.
The TTC shut down streetcar service in the area, and closed the St. Clair subway station as the surrounding neighbourhood filled with smoke. Pegg said he expected TTC disruptions Wednesday.
Pegg said the fire would probably remain an “active” fire into Wednesday.
“Still a little bit too early to tell whether or not we’re going to be able to clear the streets for the morning rush hour. We’ll do our best, but I am not sure we’re going to make it there,” he said.
Initially, Pegg had expected the fire to be put under control faster.
“Just given the instability of the building and our very limited access for the heavy equipment, it’s a much more methodical, a much slower process than we had hoped, but that’s been par for the course today,” he said.
Capt. David Eckerman of Toronto Fire Services said 40 trucks responded to the club just before 9:30 a.m.
By noon, the blaze had been upgraded to a six-alarm fire as heavy black smoke continued pouring out of the structure, filling the streets and at times obscuring the whole block.
Eckerman said all occupants of the building were accounted for.
The club’s parking lot was flooded, with water pouring out the main doors. Firefighters sloshed through about a foot of water, dumping more on the fire with every minute.
Speaking to reporters at the scene of the fire Tuesday evening, Tory said the area was “like a ghost town.”
He thanked the firefighters and others involved for “working as a team with a great deal of courage and determination to deal with a very difficult situation.”
Portions of the club’s roof collapsed, which Pegg said is normal for a fire of this magnitude. The building has combustible materials that contributed to the fire and the roof’s collapse, he said.
The oldest section of the historic building, which is nearest to Yonge St. and dates to the 1920s, was gutted.
Watching from a Country Style shop down the street, racquet club member Bruce Taylor said club management sent an email to mem- bers about the fire, saying it may have been caused by an electrical issue, but offered no other details.
“About eight years ago there was a fire in a sauna. There was some damage, but it was contained to the men’s locker room,” Taylor said. “We’ve never seen anything like this.”
“It’s just really sad,” said fellow member Colin Brown, watching the destruction from his 11th-floor office window behind the club.
“The club is a wonderful meeting point where you will literally see three generations of a family sitting together,” Brown said.
“My parents were members, I’m a member and my kids are members. It’s intimate. You always walk in there and you see people you know.” With files from Fakiha Baig